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Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) in combination with near-infrared microscopy of fluid inclusions hosted by ore minerals that are opaque to visible light can provide the composition of ore-precipitating fluids. We applied the two techniques to well-constrained fluid inclusion assemblages hosted by pyrite, enargite, and quartz to trace the sortie and evolution of the fluids in high-sulfidation epithermal veins overprinting a porphyry copper deposit at Rosin Poieni, Romania. Despite some analytical limitations caused by the sulfide host minerals, the data demonstrate that fluids trapped in apparently cogenetic quartz and ore minerals are chemically different. Systematic changes in major and trace element ratios between liquid-vapor, vapor-rich, and brine fluid inclusion assemblages in the three minerals record an evolving fluid source at the porphyry to epithermal transition. Regarding their Cs/(Na + K) ratios, most of epithermal quartz-hosted fluid inclusion assemblages form a well-defined cluster, which coincides with the narrow range of the porphyry-stage fluids trapped in early quartz of the porphyry stockwork veins. Their Cu/(Na + K) ratios are 10 to 100 times lower compared to the pyrite-hosted inclusions and correspond to the lowest Cu/(Na + K) ratios recorded for the porphyry-stage fluids. By contrast, pyrite-bested, vapor-rich fluid inclusions have the highest Cu/(Na + K) similar to the highest Cu/(Na + K) ratios measured in the porphyry-stage fluid inclusions. The results led to the conclusion that the gangue and ore minerals in the high-sulfidation epithermal veins at Rosin Poieni formed by successive pulses of chemically distinct hydrothermal fluids that were successively exsolved from residual melt batches of a progressively crystanizing magma at greater depth. These results are consistent with detailed textural observations, but petrography alone could not have led to this unambiguous conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The breccia-hosted epithermal Au-Ag deposit of Roşa Montană is located 7 km northeast of Abrud, in the northern part of the South Apuseni Mountains, Romania. Estimated total reserves of 214.91 million metric tons (Mt) of ore at 1.46 g/t Au and 6.9 g/t Ag (10.1 Moz of An mid 47.6 Moz of Ag) make Roşia Montană one of the largest gold deposits in Europe. At this location, Miocene calc-alkaline magmatic and hydrothermal activity was associated with local extensional tectonics within a strike-slip regime related to the indentation of the Adriatic microplate into the European plate during the Carpathian orogenesis. The host rocks of the magmatic complex consist of pre-Mesozoic metamorphosed continental crest covered by Cretaceous turbiditic sediment (flysch), Magmatic activity at Roşia Montană and its surroundings occurred in several pulses and lasted about 7 m.y. Roşia Montană is a breccia-hosted epithermal system related to strong phreatomagmatic activity due to the shallow emplacement of the Montana dacite. The Montana dacite intruded Miocene volcaniclastic material (volcaniclastic breccias) and crops out at Cetate and Carnie Hills. Current mining is focused primarily on the Cetate open pit, which was mapped in detail, leading to the recognition of three distinct brecia bodies: the dacite breccia with a dominantly hydrothermal matrix, the gray polymict breccia with a greater proportion of sand-sized matrix support, and the black polymict breccia, which reached to the surface, contains carbonized tree trunks and has a dominantly barren elastic matrix. The hydrothermal alteration is pervasive. Adularia alteration with a phyllic overprint is ubiquitous; silicification and argillic alteration occur locally. Mineralization consists of quartz, adularia, carbonates (commonly Mn-rich), pyrite, Fe-poor sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, tetrahedrite, and native gold and occurs as disseminations, as well as in veins and fillings vugs within the Montana dacite and the different breccias. The age of mineralization (12.85 ± 0.07 Ma) was determined by 4th Ar39Ar dating on hydrothermal adularia crystals from vugs in the dacite breccia in the Cetate open pit. Microthermometric measurements of fluid inclusions in quartz phenocrysts from the Montana dacite revealed two fluid types that are absent from the hydrothermal breccia and must have leech trapped at depth prior to dacite dome emplacement: brine inclusions (32-5 wt % NaCl equiv, homogenizing at Th > 460°C) and intermediate density fluids (4.9-15.6 wt % NaCl equiv. Th between 345°--430°C). Secondary aqueous fluid inclusion assemblages in the phenocrysts have salinities of 0.2 to 2.2 wt percent NaCl equiv and Th, of 200° to 280°C, Fluid inclusion assemblages es in hydrothermal quartz from breccias and veins have salinities of 0.2 to 3.4 wt percent NaCl equiv and Th, from 200° to 270°C. The oxygen isotope composition of several zones ot an orerelated epithermal quartz crystal indicate a very constant δ18O of 4.5 to 5.0 per mil for the mineralizing fluid, despite significant salinity and temperature variation over time. Following microthermometry, selected fluid inclusion assemblages were analyzed by laser ablation-inductively coupled-plasma mass spectrometry (LAICPMS). Despite systematic differences in salinity between phenocryst-hosted fluids trapped at depth and fluids from quartz in the epithermal breccias, all fluids have overlapping major and trace cation ratios, including identical Na/K/Rb/Sr/Cs/Ba. Consistent with the constant near-magmatic oxygen isotope composition of the hydrothermal fluids, these data strongly indicate a common magmatic component of these chemically conservative solutes in all fluids.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]